A Look Back At 2021

 Another year has come and gone...

Every January, I like to take a retrospective look at the past year here on the BlastFromTheBast Blog.

Even though 2021 still found us in the throes of a pandemic, I managed to get quite a bit of model rocketry done.

Here are the highlights:

8 new model rockets built.  

Five of these were part of the year-end multi-rocket build frenzy that is still in process.  I didn't get the remaining two completed due to the onset of colder weather and lots of windy conditions which precluded further painting operations.  These models will have to be part of the 2022 fleet addition roster.

54 Model Rocket Flights

These were spread out over 16 launch sessions:

    Five group launch sessions at Dove Valley Park in Centennial, Colorado.

    One launch session at Founders Park in Castle Rock.

    Ten launch sessions at Douglas County High School, also in Castle Rock.

Out of the total number of flights, one model was lost, and one was damaged irreparably.

One motor CATO was suffered.

Other Highlights:

One fleet model was retired after being launched on its 50th flight. This was my first ever model rocket, built in 1973.

I flew my first BAR-era D motors.  Up until this time, I had been apprehensive of going beyond Cs due to the relatively small fields I frequent. 

Several successful flight missions were flown involving altimeter and video camera payloads.

Finally, substantial progress was made on that old Steampunk Protostar build.  Sorry, no pics yet....

Our small group of rocketeers that meet at Dove Valley Park has expanded to nine individuals, including myself.

Here is this year's family photo of the flight-ready fleet for 2022:

Plus three more still residing in the 'repair hangar':

The fleet now stands at 30 models.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of you who have, thus far, followed this obscure little corner of the wonderful worldwide web!  More to come in 2022!

Cheers!